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The first article in this series, Developing Web Pages for Teaching, Part I -Introduction, discussed the basics of what a web page can do and what might beuseful. This second article talks about the details of how you actually create a webpage and put it out there for the world to see. There are lots of different ways to dothis, and there are lots more details than I can present here. This is simply a startingpoint to get you moving. It is based upon my experience teaching other faculty how towrite web pages. Many of the details will be different for your computer system, butthere should be enough information here that you can at least talk to the technicalexperts at your school to get upand running. Good luck.

Developing Web Pages for Teaching, Part I - Introduction

About This Article

The Web has quickly become a powerful tool for undergraduate education and its use has rapidly expanded. Many faculty are struggling with how to use this tool for teaching. This question includes both what to do and how to do it. The web becomes a much more effective teaching tool when faculty can develop web pages for their courses. This set of articles will help you decide what to do and how you want to do it.

What to put on the Web

The first question to ask yourself is "What am I going to use this for?" Your answer to this question will influence how you organize and create your web pages. Although the possibilities are overwhelming, don't be daunted. As you gain experience you can try new features. Begin with something simple. Suggestions about where to start and how to organize things include:

Syllabus. This is a great starting point. Students can always get a new copy of the syllabus if they loose it; students considering the course can get a better idea of what it is about; and you can get an easy start at making web pages.

Course Schedule. This is even more useful for students. Since you can easily make changes during the semester it is useful for you. As with the syllabus, this could simply be handed out on paper but it takes advantage of some features of the web. It is easy to update and you can include links to resources on the web.

Links to Web Sites. As you start to use the web as a resource you need a way to point students to useful sites. There is an overwhelming amount of material available in any subject and it is difficult for students to sort through all this to find useful information. If you want your students to use the web, it must be easy and convenient for them to find information. Students are pragmatic, remember this. Long lists of web sites are easy to put together, but they will not be much help. Organize things so students can quickly find what is useful for them. Since this will change during the semester you need to find a way to organize things. Including links in the course schedule will organize them so students know when something is useful.

Lecture Notes. This project is considerably more involved. Although your students will find it very useful, realize that it is a lot of work. You will have to judge for yourself if this is worthwhile. For my introductory classes this has been a rewarding effort.

Supplemental material. This may be anything that is useful for your students, including old exams, solutions to problem sets and handouts. Use your imagination. The more useful the course web site is, the more the students will use it. Your site needs to have a "critical mass" so that students take the time to use it as a resource. The more you use it, the more the students will use it. If you want your students to use this resource you have to make it useful to them.

Files. You are not restricted to using HTML (HyperText Markup Language) documents that display as regular web pages. There are many other methods for presenting information. With the web you can also display:

Adobe Acrobat (pdf files). This is a file format for electronic publishing. It is especially useful if you have a computer document that you want to present as is, so that your students see it exactly as you would print it. Your students will need the acrobat reader, which is free, and you will need acrobat, which is not free. Both are available from Adobe.

Video and Audio. These files are very large and do not work well with a modem connection. However, on the local network they are fine. There are several different formats that are widely used. The Spring 2001 CONFCHEM "Lecture Demonstrations in Chemistry on the World Wide Web" shows how this can be useful.

Lots More. There are lots more possibilities. You can use any computer file, including; spreadsheets, wordprocessing documents, Powerpoint presentations, database files, anything that may be useful. If the students computer is properly configured the web browser will open the file in the correct application. There are lots of possibilities, but it may take some time and experimentation to get everything working.

Style Comments for Web Pages

These are of course, just my opinions. My hope is that they cause you to think about your reader and how they interact with your web pages. If you do this, it will be time well spent.

ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE. If your student's can't find what they want in a few minutes with a couple clicks of the mouse they will not bother. You need a clear, logical, and consistent structure to help them find what they want.

Keep each web page short and to the point. Scrolling to read long web pages is tedious. Scrolling through a web page is boring. Long web pages take more time to load. Break long documents into short pieces if you want students to read it on the screen. If you want them to print it out, make one longer document.

KISS (Keep it Simple S-----). There is an extraordinary array of formatting features available for web pages. But overwhelming your audience with features may not help them. It is unlikely you can compete with professional web development teams hired by the entertainment companies. Don't try, instead provide information and resources to your students.

Don't use the blink tag or animated gifs (graphics image file) just to be cute. Did you ever look at a web page and say to yourself, "that flashing text really makes this easier to read" or "that flashing spinning smiley face is much more effective than a bullet"?

Don't specify the font. If the viewer does not have that font, they will not be able to read your page.

Don't underline text. People expect links to display as underlined text, if you use an underline they will try and click on it. When nothing happens, they'll be frustrated.

Don't use blue or purple text. People expect links to be in blue or purple (the default settings). If you use these colors for text, they will try and click on it. When nothing happens, they'll be frustrated.

Don't change the colors of links. Once again, people expect certain colors to indicate links, if you change this, you will confuse your readers.

Don't specify the background and text colors. You may really like reading yellow text on an orange background, but others may not be so thrilled with the combination. If you like yellow text on an orange background, setup your browser to display everything that way but don't impose your color scheme on others. In addition to being difficult to read and ugly, specifying colors can also cause problems with printing. For example, if you specify white text on a black background, only a technically savvy user will be able to print your document. If you use color text, users with color printers may not be pleased when they use an entire cartridge of green to print your document. There is a reason publishers use black text on white paper. It works.

Think about what the web is good at, and focus on that. The web is a rich source of visual material. It is also a quick and efficient method for presenting text (although long passages are difficult to read on the computer screen and will be printed by most users). Audio and video are also possible, but keep bandwidth limitations in mind. Just because you can videotape your entire lecture and put it on the web, does not mean a student will view it from home. Try and keep video and audio clips under a minute in length. If they are longer, they will take too much time to download and won't hold your students interest.

Give up the desire for precise layout control. Keep your layout design simple. Don't try to set everything so that the spacing is perfect on your computer. It will show up differently on another computer and when it is printed. The simpler the formatting, the more portable the presentation is. One of the underlining principals of HTML is that it is that you don't try and specify exactly how everything will look. There are too many variables in screen size, color, computers, and browsers for this to work well. Instead HTML lets you specify when something is important or very important. Then the browser decides what to do with that. You decide if something should be one size bigger or 2 sizes bigger. Do not specify the size, let the browser decide what that means. Give up control, it is an illusion. If you need precise page layout, don't use HTML. If you need precise page layout use Adobe Acrobat, it is intended for that purpose.

Some common mistakes include:

Using spaces for formatting. Because tabs, indents, columns, and right justifications are not available in HTML, many people try to design pages using spaces. Don't try it, the page will look different on every computer. Often with terrible results. You can accomplish some of these features with careful use of tables, but if you don't do it right it will create a mess. If you want your web page to look like a newsletter, you and your readers will probably be disappointed. If you want this level of control, make acrobat documents and put them on the web.

Using hard returns for line wrapping. Just like a word processor, let the computer control the line wrap. This lets the browser adjust the lines to display properly on different size monitors and when printed. You don't have control over the margins and the page breaks on a web page, so don't try. If you need that level of layout control, look into using Acrobat documents.

Page layout control. If you want to carefully control the layout of a page, learn how to use tables. It is more work than you may want, but it does provide control, flexibility, and robust page layout.

Page display. Remember that the page will display differently on different size monitors and also when printed. Take a look at your web page on a 14" monitor and on a printer to verify that it works well under these conditions.

Composing Good HTML This is a more advanced and detailed discussion about writing HTML documents. This is highly recommended for anyone who has started writing HTML and is ready for some more detail. It also offers comments on common mistakes.

Basic HTML Features for Web Pages

This is a very brief introduction on HTML written by Scott Van Bramer at Widener University. You do not have to know HTML to write web pages. But if you understand the basic features of HTML, you understand how web pages work. This will help you avoid many problems as you learn to create web pages. Be aware that not all browsers recognize all HTML tags. Each company has added tags that are not a part of the standard HTML to add features to their browser. You should take a look at your pages with several different browsers to be certain that your viewers will not encounter any problems.

NAME - Tells the browser to mark a location in a document with a name. This allows the HREF action to link to a specific location within a document. Place this tag at the location you want to jump to. The syntax for this tag is:

Protocol. (http:// in the above example) This tells the browser what type of server the link points to. This lets the browser know how to talk to the server. Options include:

http:// This is a link to a document on a web server.

ftp:// This is a link to a file on an FTP server.

file:// This is a link to a file on the browser's computer (The computer the student is sitting at).

mailto:// This informs the browser that the link is an e-mail address. If your browser is configured correctly, clicking on this link will open up an e-mail message to the address. For example the link svanbram@science.widener.edu ends an e-mail message to me. If students are using a computer in a campus laboratory, this feature may not work as you intended.

The address. This tells the browser where to go. For example the address for this page is

science.widener.edu/svb/htmltalk/ccce/introbasic.html

Addresses may be copied and pasted from the location bar in the browser. Typically the begin with the name of the server (science.widener.edu) and are followed by the file path ( /svb/htmltalk/ccce/) and a file name (introbasic.html ). If a file name is not specified (introbasic.html) the server will return a directory listing. If there is a file named index.html in the directory the server will return that file. The main document in a directory usually has the name index.html.

The address can also specify a location in the document defined with a NAME tag (detailed above). This example shows an address that will jump to a location named "link tags" in the document "basic.html" on the server "science.widener.edu" in the file directory "svb/htmltalk/ccce".

Counter Scripts

Most web servers allow counters to be inserted into web pages. This is a handy way to track usage of a web page. The exact details are a function of the software on your web server. It usually involves CGI scripts accessed using special links. See your system administrator for details. The counter on this page uses the following script.

<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counter"-->

Controlling Access to Web Pages

It is also possible to control access to web pages. There are several different ways to do this. Consult your system administrator for exact details. Most web server software allows access to be restricted by password or by domain. If a web page is restricted by password the user will be prompted for a userid and password. The userid and password must match a list of approved users and passwords. This works well but is somewhat tedious to setup and maintain. Restricting access by domain limits access to a range of IP addresses. For example restricting by domain to 147.31 limits access to computers connected to the Widener University network. No password is required for domain access, so it is easier for students who are on campus. However, if students are off campus they will not be able to view the web page. I use domain restriction for multimedia files to satisfy the copyright concerns of the publisher.

Web Page Maintenance

I highly recommend that you periodically browse through your web pages to find any old links that are no longer valid. There are software programs that automate this process. I use a program called LinkBot.